Essay Sample on Individual's Physiological Characteristics According to Ages

Introduction

Apgar scale refers to a test that is given to a newly born child as soon as possible after the birth. It helps in checking the baby's muscle tone, the rate of the heartbeat, as well as other signs to determine if any emergency care for the child or special forms of medical care is required. It is administered twice; it is administered once as soon as one minute surpasses after the birth of the child and the duration of five minutes after the birth. However, if there are concerns that raise the suspicion over the health status of the child, the Apgar test may be done again to help monitor the health status of the child over time.

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Apgar is an acronym word that stands for Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and finally Respiration. They represent the five things respectively performed while testing the health of the child. They help in checking the health of the baby in the process. The tests are then recorded against the scale of 0 to 2, in which 2 is the best score, signifying the faring well of the child. In the acronyms for the word Apgar, Appearance defines the skin colour of the child, where the best score indicates the standard colour all over the body of the child, with the pink colouration in the feet and hands. Pulse translates to the heart rate of the child. The average pulse in the child is where there are over 100 beats per minute. Grimace is the reflex irritability of the child. The typical score in this category is where the child can pull away, cough, sneeze, or even cries with stimulation. Activity translates to the muscle tone. For the newly born child, they should be active and with spontaneous movements, signifying normalcy. Respiration is the rate of the breathing of the child. A good cry shows the standard respiration rate for the child.

Adolescent egocentrism is a term that is used to define the situation and a phenomenon in which the tweens and teens between the ages of 11 and 16 years are not able to clearly distinguish between what they think other people perceive themselves to be and what others think of them in reality. It is a normal stage of cognitive limitation in the teens, linked with the cognitive developmental stage. In this case, the teens tend to imagine and believe that they are at the centre of the attention in everywhere they are. The abstract thinking and hypothetical situations. The adolescents conceive of the probable thought of other people on them and believe them to be true when in a real sense it might not be true. Further, the adolescents have a high tendency of focusing more on themselves and their perceptions. It is because of the substantial physiological changes they are undergoing during adolescence. The adolescents will then believe that other people are attentive to their appearances and behaviours the way they are, too, careful to themselves. There are two broad categories of adolescent egocentrism; personal fable and imaginary audience. Personal fable refers to the tendency of the adolescents that their feelings are unique in some way as well as immortal and unique. The imaginary audience, on the other hand, refers to a phenomenon in which the adolescents tend to expect reactions from other people towards themselves in some social situations. I have been through adolescent egocentrism when I was 14 years old. I was quite self-sensitive and thought that other people thought I was a right person. It was an imaginary audience kind of adolescent egocentrism.

There is the phenomenon of the development of identity during adolescence. In such a stage, identity refers to a new way of thinking about oneself, and it emerges in the adolescence phase of life. It constitutes a sense of the unity of the self, followed by the feeling by the adolescents that the self-has an aspect of continuity over time. The identity firmly established in a person provides a sense of being unique in a person. Identity is perceived by the individual and further confirmed by other people. It can thus be seen that the process in which identity is established in a person involve the integration of the person's experiences of the past into a whole coherent unit together with the ongoing changes in the person, the demands of the society as well as the anticipations of the future of the involved person.

There are four important statuses of identity in the adolescents developed by James Marcia. He was able to dissociate the identity as involving the orientation of the sex of a person, the concoction of ideas together with values, and the vocational direction of the person. His four primary identity statuses are:

1. Foreclosure: they are the people who have already made the commitments about the professional future. They have however developed an identity crisis. They have gone congruent to the expectation of other about their fate.
2. Diffusion: In this case, the young people have not made any commitments. Also, they may or may not have had to experience the identity crisis. Besides, the person may have given up on the idea of developing any meaningful commitments concerning the clear personal sense of identity.
3. Moratorium: In this case, the individuals are struggling in a bid to formulate alternative commitments. However, they have not made the decision yet. They have an identity crisis and are moving forward to the identity formation through making commitments.
4. Achievement: In this case, the person has been through an identity crisis and has made the necessary commitments to build a sense of identity.

The big five personality traits involve an openness to experience, neuroticism, extroversion, Agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Openness to experience can get described as the complexity and depth of the mental life and experiences of a person. It is also referred to as the imagination. It concerns the willingness of a person to be vulnerable and try out new things.

Conscientiousness is the character trait of a person where there is the ability to control impulses while acting in the accepted ways socially. It is characterized by being ambitious, self-disciplined and perseverance exhibited by the person. Extroversion and introversion cover where a person can draw ones energy as well as the way they interact with other people. Extroverts are sociable and talkative while introverts favour solitude. Agreeableness is a trait concerning the way in which people get along with other people, characterized by being modest, humble, trusting and moderate. Finally, Neuroticism is a trait that encompasses the emotional stability of the individual, being comfortable with the appearance of oneself and being confident. Those scoring high in neuroticism are temperamental, jealous and unstable while those scoring low are confident, have high self-esteem and adventurous.

A person with a high level of each trait is in the know to me. He is quite confident of himself and adventurous, hence with low neuroticism. Also, he is trustable and easily gets along with others, thus agreeable. He also extracts energy from talkatively interacting with others, hence an extrovert. Further, his diligence and perseverance make him conscientious, and the adventurous characteristic shows his openness to experience.

Alzheimer disease has five stages as shown with their timelines. From stage five, they are namely early loss (2 to 4 years), moderate loss (2 to 10 years), middle loss (1 to 3 years), severe loss (about 2 years) and profound loss ( 1.5 years) respectively. In stage five, one shows a cognitive decline and can get by with minimal supervision. The patients follow schedules and stick to familiar routines. In stage four, the patient asks questions repeatedly, rely on visual cues. There is a need for explicit gestures to be used. They also have robles with the daily living lie grooming. In stage three, the patient needs step by step guidance, like touching things, and is often attracted to smelling things. In step two, the patient's ability to communicate diminishes, appear to be asleep, and use hands poorly. In stage one, the patient is bed-bound, spends much time asleep, and may mumble or cry. The close people with the Alzheimer disease are supported through changing oneself to understand them and catered for accordingly.

There are four factors involved in the older adults' compensation for the sensory loss and aging organs. They are the specialist care, technology, personal determination and cultural accommodation. An example of technology is the use of the most efficient technology for the corrections, and the specialist care is the expert in the areas of interest. A personal determination is an acceptance by the person to undergo screening. Also, Cultural accommodation is the involvement of the cultures of the patient at hand.

My physical condition at 80 will be characterized by the reduced energy, sight distance, slow mobility and bent body posture.

Conclusion

The lessons learnt about development in the course is that individual's physiological characteristics vary according to ages, and that one matures more and more as the ages go by. The young people are less developed cognitively than the older persons with more developed cognitive capabilities.